


Two in a Bed

by lachatblanche



Category: Captain America (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, X-Men (Movies), X-Men: First Class (2011) - Fandom
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fusion, Alternate Universe - Still Have Powers, Fluff, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-23
Updated: 2016-01-23
Packaged: 2018-05-15 18:51:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,736
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5795872
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lachatblanche/pseuds/lachatblanche
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Steve doesn't begrudge being called in to save the world at odd hours of the day, he really doesn't. It's just that it's <em>really</em> hard to work up the appropriate enthusiasm for it when the alternative is spending the day in bed with Charles.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Two in a Bed

Steve is lying in bed when the call comes, shaking him out of his light slumber and causing him to jerk awake, immediately on alert – the product of a reflex that he has never quite been able to train himself out of. Beside him, Charles lets out a disgruntled noise and rolls over, the pale skin of his back almost gleaming in the twilight.

Steve allows his eyes to linger for only half a second before he reaches out and pulls the phone to his ear.

‘Rogers,’ he answers, drawing his focus back to the present.

‘Captain,’ comes Nick Fury’s measured drawl. ‘We have a situation.’

Steve sighs and rubs a hand over his face. ‘I kind of figured,’ he says, drawing his hand away and allowing it to drop down to his lap. ‘What kind of situation are we talking about?’

‘The bad kind,’ Fury says grimly. ‘Some stupid motherfucker’s been stealing HYDRA tech from our vaults and selling it some _other_ dumb motherfuckers down in Havana.’ Fury sighs. ‘I don’t need to tell you that there’s some dangerous shit there, Rogers. We need to get that tech back before they actually figure what those things are capable of.’

Steve doesn’t mean to sound unenthusiastic; he really doesn’t. ‘And you need me for this?’ he asks, allowing his gaze to drift over to where Charles is snuggled up under the bedcovers, looking warm and comfortable and – as always – impossibly alluring.

There’s a pause over the phone. 

‘I mean,’ Steve adds quickly, grimacing, ‘Isn’t this the sort of thing that SHIELD deals with?’

Fury doesn’t answer immediately but when he does, the impatience is clear in his voice. ‘I wouldn’t be calling you if I didn’t need you, Rogers,’ Fury’s unimpressed drawl is an effective chastisement even through the telephone, and Steve grimaces. ‘SHIELD is equipped to handle all sorts of things, but repurposed alien HYDRA tech capable of taking out a planet with the push of a button is just a little bit above the average agent’s pay grade. You hear me?’

Steve sighs. ‘I hear you,’ he says, feeling slightly repentant.

‘Good,’ Fury says firmly. ‘Now get your ass out of bed and get to work. We need you.’

Steve blinks as Fury hangs up without another word. A _beep_ from his phone moments later alerts him to the fact that he has received a data packet with information on his target, and he takes a few minutes to acquaint himself with the details before lying back with a sigh. He stays there for a moment longer, feeling much too warm and comfortable, and is unable to keep from mourning the loss of another lazy morning in bed with Charles. A moment is all he takes, however, and in the next he is up and out of bed, reaching for his clothes and quickly pulling them on with swift, efficient grace.

_Going somewhere?_

Steve glances up from tying his shoelaces to see Charles looking up at him from their bed, his hair a veritable crow’s nest, his eyes blinking sleepily out at him.

‘Work,’ Steve says apologetically, dropping his hands to his sides and turning towards the chair where his coat had been flung last night. ‘Go back to sleep, Charles. I’ll be back as soon as I can.’

Charles, naturally, decides to sit up instead, the sheets falling down to waist. ‘Do you have to?’ he sighs, looking put-out.

‘Yeah.’ Steve gives him a rueful smile. ‘It sounds pretty urgent.’

Charles frowns. ‘Is it dangerous?’ Then he shakes his head and smiles wryly. ‘What am I talking about. Of _course_ it’s dangerous. They’re sending _you_ in.’

Steve’s expression turns fond. ‘I’ll be okay,’ he says reassuringly. ‘You know I’ll be okay, right?’

Charles sighs. ‘I know,’ he says, but his slightly forlorn expression makes something in Steve’s chest clench. ‘But you only just got back from your mission in Latveria, and I was rather hoping …’ He shrugs. ‘Well I wasn’t hoping for very much, but a day in bed would have been nice.’

‘I know.’ Steve reached over and clasped his hand over the pale ankle that was poking out from under the covers. ‘I was hoping that too.’ 

‘Can’t I … _convince_ you to stay?’ Charles asks, his tone simultaneously hopeful and resigned.

Steve’s lips twitch. ‘It’s very tempting,’ he admits, ‘But unless you have a way of stopping a bad guy from selling a bunch of HYDRA weapons to some even worse guys without leaving the bed, then …’ He trails off, shrugging apologetically.

Charles, however, has gone still. He bites his lip, looking uncharacteristically hesitant.

‘What?’ Steve asks at once. ‘What is it?’

‘Well …’ Charles says, clearly choosing his words with care. ‘I actually – er – may be able to help with that.’

Steve’s brow furrows. ‘How?’ he asks, although a part of him already knows what Charles is about to propose. Whether he can accomplish it, however, is another matter entirely.

Charles confirms his suspicions when he raises his right hand and makes a wiggling motion with his fingers. Steve has always been bemused by the fact that the fiddly, odd-looking gesture is supposed to represent Charles’s telepathy, which is one of the most overwhelming and awe-inspiring things that Steve has ever experienced – and that is saying something, considering that he’s seen Thor call down lightning from the heavens, has seen an inter-dimensional vortex open over New York and has himself gone from a scrawny boy plagued by illness to a legendary super-soldier practically overnight. 

Steve’s eyes drift over to where Charles is watching him, sleep-rumpled and still wreathed in bed sheets, and he sighs. ‘Thanks for the offer,’ he says with a small smile. ‘But somehow I don’t think that’ll work here. The guy I’m looking for isn’t even in the same country, and you are still half-asleep.’

‘I’m awake,’ Charles says immediately, sitting up straighter and blinking furiously as if this will prove that he is sufficiently alert.

‘Even so,’ Steve says gently, squeezing Charles’s foot. ‘I don’t think that’s going to help us very much. You were saying just the other day how hard it was for you to get hold of Raven and she’s only an hour away. I hate to say it, but I don’t think that you’d be able to find someone in a whole other _country_.’

Charles bites his lip at that, looking uncertain. Then, setting his jaw, he turns to Steve and cocks his head. ‘Where did you say this guy was again?’ he asks.

Steve watches him closely. ‘Havana,’ he says slowly, allowing Charles into his mind so that he could prod at the information that he had just read. ‘Why do you ask?’

But Charles is already miles away, his eyes closed and expression pinched. Steve stares at him, bemused, hanging back uncertainly at the foot of the bed. After a moment, however, Charles opens his eyes again and smiles.

‘There,’ he says, sounding immensely pleased with himself. ‘Got him. It’s all taken care of. You can come back to bed now.’

Steve doesn’t move, his brow furrowed as he stares at Charles, who all of a sudden looks slightly self-conscious.

‘What?’ he asks defensively, folding his arms across his chest. 

Steve shakes his head. ‘Did you just …?’

Charles shrugs, looking down at the bed sheets and deliberately avoiding Steve’s eyes.

In response, Steve crosses his arms over his chest and raises his eyebrow. Charles has always been susceptible to this particular expression of Steve’s, and although Steve has a good idea what just happened, he still would like to hear a decent explanation from Charles.

As expected, Charles shifts around on the bed and then finally bites his lip. ‘So … I _may_ have played down exactly how powerful a telepath I am?’ he says weakly.

‘Yes,’ Steve says dryly. ‘I kind of figured that.’

‘And … you’re wondering why I didn’t say anything before?’

‘That’s exactly what I’m wondering,’ Steve confirms.

‘It’s almost like I can read your mind,’ Charles jokes half-heartedly, before shrugging and bending his head, deliberately avoiding Steve’s eyes. ‘I don’t know,’ he mumbles, fussing about with a loose thread from the sheet. ‘It just … never seemed relevant.’

‘But it was today?’

‘It was for a good cause,’ Charles protests, head jerking up in objection.

Steve’s eyebrow climbs higher. ‘You mean getting me back in bed?’ he asks deprecatingly.

Charles’s lips twitch at that, belying the solemn expression on his face. ‘I’ll have you know that my reasons were a great deal more selfless than that,’ he says haughtily, lifting his chin.

Steve can’t resist a smile. He’s about to respond when a message alert sounds from his phone. When he checks it, he sees that it’s a message from Fury. He reads the message and then turns back to Charles. 

‘What is it?’ Charles asks innocently, as if he doesn’t know full well what it is even without reading Steve’s mind.

‘It’s Fury,’ Steve says, deciding to humour him. ‘He’s cancelled the mission. Apparently the guy we’re looking for handed himself in at the nearest police station along with a truckload of stolen HYDRA weapons.’

Charles’s eyebrows rise up. ‘Really?’ he murmurs. ‘How fortunate.’

‘I’ll say. I guess the guy had a change of heart.’

‘Must be the Christmas spirit.’

‘It’s July, Charles.’

‘Some other spirit then,’ Charles says, shrugging. He pauses then, glancing up at Steve from under his eyelashes and chewing his lip. ‘Come back to bed?’ he asks hopefully.

Steve hesitates only for a moment. Then, realising that he’s fooling no one with his feigned irritation, he shakes his head and, with one swift move, reaches down and pulls his shirt up over his head. When he emerges from under the shirt, he sees Charles beaming at him from the bed, and he smiles.

‘You know,’ he says conversationally as both he and Charles lie back on the bed, settling into the warmth and tangling their legs together. ‘One of these days I’m going to have to let Fury know that I’m in a relationship with an immensely powerful telepath who might be just about capable of bringing about world peace.’

‘Yes, you should,’ Charles agrees, snuggling contentedly into his chest. ‘ _One_ of these days.’

Steve thinks about it. ‘One of these days a few years down the line?’ he suggests after a moment.

Charles smiles. ‘That sounds perfect,’ he says, and then kisses him.

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [You Read My Mind (Two in a Bed Remix)](https://archiveofourown.org/works/8122459) by [Gerec](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Gerec/pseuds/Gerec)




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